REDWITCH STORY PAGE 2

THE REDWITCH STORY (continued from Page 1)

'Look at this'

It was actually Gordon McNeill who introduced Jenny to Akitas. He had been over to the USA and seen the breed, and at Leeds he took her over to see Marion Sargent’s bitch and said “Have a look at this – we should import one of these!” This had sown the seed with the Dunhills who bought their first Akita, Kiskas Darth Vader, from the Mitchells in 1984 and then visited the 1985 American Akita National which brings us back to where we started.

Through the contacts they met at the National, the Dunhills paid a lot of money for Pharfossa’s Cujo, who won well but proved to be completely sterile. The day after he came out of quarantine he won Reserve BIS at Bakewell Open show.

Now happily married for fourteen years, but together for much longer, Dave recalls lying on the grass at a dog show, chatting to Jenny about Rottweilers, when his then wife came along and made some sarcastic remark about the apparent cosiness of the situation. Similarly on another occasion, Dave and Jenny were ringside, again sharing their feelings about dogs and the breed in general, when John crossed the ring to suggest that they needed a bucket of water throwing over them! Clearly the writing was on the wall!

John and Jenny continued to import four more bitches from the USA and from that early breeding they produced Vormund Hot Shot who was bought by Liz Bland-Kerr who added her Fantasa affix (and who, in a further twist to the tale later ended up marrying John Dunhill!) and his brother, Hot Stuff.

The story of their actually getting together varies somewhat. Dave’s version is “I went to build kennels for her and never went home!” whilst Jenny’s is a little more tactful. Be that as it may, in 1987 Dave and Jenny got together permanently. They had much in common, saw dogs through similar eyes and had the same kind of goals and ambitions. The Redwitch kennel name was soon registered jointly.

Jenny muses, “It worked well – John wanted the prefix but not the dogs, so I was quite happy about that,” whereas Dave quips “And my ex wanted everything! But I ended up with the dogs – six months later!”

The start of it all

Having moved in together Jenny and Dave initially set up home with five Rottweilers, seven Akitas and Jenny’s three daughters. After the courts had sorted out his affairs they were later joined by nine of Dave’s dogs, so things were quite hectic to start with. Six months later they bought a boarding kennel and there they had the facilities to indulge their breeding activities much more easily.

That was in January 1988 and there then had to be a conscious decision as to what direction Redwitch would go. It was decided to phase out their own Rotts, even though Dave was often handling the likes of Ch Upend Gallant Ynys to many top wins. They obviously kept the oldies but put their heads together, having decided to concentrate on Akitas, as to how their breeding would progress.

The Vormund and Lizda dogs were broadly speaking total opposites – “poles apart” they admit – as regards type. Between them Dave and Jenny prioritised exactly what they wanted in the Redwitch dogs. Jenny’s original dogs were more or less weeded out as were some of Dave’s. Concentrating on the lines he had decided he needed to work with, Dave had mated the Sachmo grand daughter, Marlow’s Miracle, to McCoy, a Sachmo son. This produced Lizda Zee Zee Flash who was one of the most important bitches when Redwitch was born.

Hand-on learning

When he had been at that 1985 National, Dave had been there effectively on his own and spent two weeks studying the breed closely. “All I did was sit with Bill and BJ Andrews, Catherine Bell of the Daijobu, and help groom the dogs, going over them and seeing how these things were shown – it was completely different from handling Rotts. I had already got McCoy in quarantine, and at that National a 16 weeks puppy by him was with the O’BJs at their set up, and everyone who saw this in the ex-pen wanted to buy it. That puppy grew up to be Am Ch The Widow Maker O’BJ who for many years was one of the all-time Top Winning and Producing Akitas in the USA.

I just got swept away with the heads, coats and movement I was seeing, and when we got together I really wanted a piece of that,” he recalls.

Having bought the boarding kennels, Jenny and Dave had very much pruned down the Akitas, just keeping the only dogs they felt would be able to help them move forward. They were now subscribing to the American Akita World and one day an issue arrived that carried an advertisement featuring a bitch puppy called Goshen’s Dressed Ta Kill.

“We both saw this picture and thought ‘Wow’ – she had such strength in her head and the whole package was incredible,” Jenny says.

“We had to have that bitch and I tried to buy her there and then,” Dave remembers, “I got straight on the phone to America – Jen was panicking because of the cost of the call! – and I had my first conversation with Julie Hoehn of the Goshen’s kennel, and that was the start of a long and rewarding friendship.”

Goshen's Influence

Over the years the Goshen’s influence on Redwitch has been vast as will be detailed later in the article, yet strangely to this day the Killileas have never actually met Lew and Julie Hoehn. All their dealings have been done over the phone and the Killileas cannot speak too highly of how straight and honourable the Hoehns have been with them.

“They have always been honest, sent us what they said they were sending and never charged us silly money,” Jenny says. The Killileas would contact Goshen’s and tell them they needed a dog that would give them heads, colours, bone or whatever, and they always managed to come up with the goods.

Of the charismatic puppy in the advert, Dave continues, “They wouldn’t sell us that, but told us that they had recently had a bitch back from a broken home. She was recently mated to Am Ch O’BJ King’s Ransom, they reckoned she was a very good type bitch who could make an excellent brood. They were prepared to let us have her in whelp, so we figured “why not”? It seemed too good an opportunity to turn down. She was coming up to three. That was Goshen’s Classy Sassy at Redwitch.”

Jenny and Dave bought her totally unseen, not even a photograph, purely on the say-so of the Hoehns. Jenny has vivid recall of seeing her for the first time. “We got her out of the crate, and I couldn’t believe it. This was supposed to be a “brood bitch” but it was better than anything we’d ever seen in the country. We were over the moon, but devastated when all bar one of her puppies died with parvo after they were released from quarantine.”

Dave interjects, “I figured I’d have a dog puppy out of this bitch by King’s Ransom which could be a key stud dog for us, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen, so I spoke to Julie Hoehn again and explained our predicament, trying optimistically to buy Ransom himself. That was never going to happen, and tragically the dog later got poisoned and died, but she did mention that they had a dog out on the circuit sired by Ransom who was in the running for Number One Akita that year. Julie was feeling very disenchanted with showing dogs after this poisoning business, and I think mainly because of that she promised me that if they made this young dog Number One, we could have him. He secured his position on the Saturday and by Wednesday he was in the UK!” That dog was Goshen’s Heir Apparent at Redwitch.